Tim Murphy already mentioned in his introduction to Dick Davis as Visiting Lariat that Dick has a new poetry collection forthcoming, but I wanted to give the news a little more prominence. The book is titled <u>Belonging</u> and is available by the end of this month from Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. It can be ordered directly from OUP at (740)593-1158, through your local bookstore, or through Amazon. It is also being published by Anvil Press in the U.K.

I've had the pleasure and privilege of reading <u>Belonging</u> in manuscript, and I am not alone in the opinion that it contains some of Dick's finest poems to date. Another member recently lamented elsewhere how difficult it was to get hold of <u>Devices and Desires</u>. I propose that the Davis fans among us do our best to help keep this new book in print for a long time.

I share Catherine's assessment, and like Catherine I possess a treasured copy of the manuscript. It is very inspiring for a young whipper-snapper like Tim to see a grand old man like Davis doing his best work at so advanced an age.

Although Dick's American Selected, A Kind of Love, is out of print, the English version, Devices and Desires, one of the few really indispensable volumes of contemporary poetry I have, can be ordered from amazon.co.uk.

A Kind of Love is also available secondhand through those invaluable sites, Advanced Book Exchange and Alibris, which for some Spherians might be cheaper than importing from the UK - though no doubt Dick would do less well out of the deal!

Yes, Belonging is a brilliant and immensely gratifying book. It's difficult to imagine other living persons writing such plangent, technically right-on, and engaging poems as constitute roughly half the book. And I say this uncomfortably well aware that I'm preaching to the converted.

A review of Belonging is featured on Poetry Daily in their news section, from the Columbus Dispatch .

It is not the most articulate or well-versed review (partly perhaps because aimed at a general audience?), and doesn't do justice to this delightful and satisfying book. But it is nice to see the book getting the attention.